The Muppets try Google+ Hangouts in new ad

So Google, being the company to not do things by half, have released a new ad promoting it's social networking efforts, showing the Muppets sharing a 'Hangout' group chat.

We couldn't help but smile at our childhood icons (particular favourite has to be Beaker), share the video conferencing stage to cover Queen and David Bowie's classic "Under Pressure." Google couldn't help but show us the situation where "famously good friends get together in a Google+ Hangout, to rock out and blow off steam."

Google+ is splitting into Photos and Streams

Long time VP of product for Google and recently appointed head of Google+, Bradley Horowitz, announced today via the network that he is beginning to split the social network’s elements apart, starting with two separate products: Photos and Streams.

Google introduces business pages for Google+

After much speculation and request from business to capitalise on Google+ features, pages have now been implemented into the social network.

Announced via their blog, and still in a closed alpha state, the functionality seems to be very much in the same vein as Facebook; but with some slight tweaks in the form of introducing Hangouts to communicate with your audience, grouping particular subsections of your base into circles, and an interesting form of analytical data called 'Ripples,' allowing you to see how your posts spread across Google+.

Google denies reports that Google+ is dying

Reports of Google+'s death were greatly exaggerated according to Google, claiming to the BBC they they're just getting started

This comes in response to a Forbes article "A Eulogy for Google Plus", a piece in Slate: "Google+ is dead," and the general opinion circulating that seems to be we got a Google+ account; but don't really use it anymore.

Editorial: Google+ is not a social media game changer

Google+ has an obvious advantage in search results, presents unique opportunities for brands and is backed by deep pockets, he argues. And all of these factors make it a social media platform that will stick around in a big way.

In respects, his argument for the social network succeeding make sense. Comparing it to Facebook at such an early stage in development is the equivalent of comparing the aforementioned to Myspace back in 2006: it's still rather early days, and has a lot of changes to undergo. But in it's current state, Brogan pointed out the crucial flaw with Google+ through via one of his points deemed as a positive.

'Focus on the User' retools Google Social Search to work with all networks

Engineers from Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have banded together to "Focus on the user:" a project that reworks Google's social search update to include all social networks instead of it's own.

So as Google released Search Plus Your World to coincide with their social networking service, people realised that this wasn't exactly 'social' and it wasn't really 'your world.' As we made rather clear, for this to be seen as a social search it needs to be open, and that's exactly what this developed bookmarlet does.